TimTheTatman, DrLupo and more rush back to Twitch as YouTube deals end (2024)

Several big streamers have returned to Twitch following an exclusive stint with YouTube, and it’s clear which platform viewers prefer.

While Twitch was the pioneering platform for making streaming a legitimate career option, many rivals have emerged since to try and emulate its success, including YouTube Gaming, Kick, and Microsoft’s now-defunct Mixer.

The growing competition caused a bidding war between companies to nab the biggest streamers, with some, like Tim ‘TimTheTatman’ Betar, Benjamin ‘DrLupo’ Lupo, and FaZe Clan streamer Kris ‘Swagg’ Lamberson, signing lucrative deals to exclusively stream on YouTube.

Many of these deals, which date back to 2021, are just now expiring. Although it appears to be YouTube that decided not to renew them, most streamers seem fine with the idea that the exclusivity deals are over and are now opting to broadcast across both platforms, or even abandon YouTube altogether.

In a DrLupo stream on September 2, a day after his official return, the gulf in popularity between the two platforms is clear to see. At the time of writing, there re roughly 2,651 concurrent viewers through YouTube, while around 13,815 people are watching on Twitch.

In his first stream back, DrLupo explained the reason behind his return to Twitch, stating that ‘nobody’s doing exclusivity deals anymore’.

‘It was a chance for me now to go multi-platform to try and alleviate some of the, ‘we’ve got to support a streamer’, because the more viewers we have on more platforms, the better we can push deals for ads and stuff like that,’ he said.

As reported by Dexerto, there’s a similar, if not quite as sizeable, split for TimTheTatman. On Sunday, he had around 30,000 viewers on Twitch and just 19,000 on YouTube.

Swagg, who was signed with YouTube Gaming for two years, has decided to largely drop his YouTube stream in favour of Twitch moving forward. Which implies he thinks he won’t make much money from it if he’s not being paid to be exclusive.

Why is Swagg leaving YouTube?

In a video announcing why he’s ‘leaving’ YouTube, Swagg said his decision to not re-sign with the company was because it now largely prioritises short-form content, in an attempt to compete with TikTok.

He hasn’t ruled out streaming on YouTube Gaming entirely, with Swagg stating he’ll multi-stream (i.e. stream on more than one service at once) across different platforms for big tournament events, but his ‘daily streaming’ will only be on Twitch.

Not everyone is sold on the idea of multi-streaming across different platforms though. Ludwig ‘Ludwig’ Ahgren, who is still signed to YouTube as a content creator, recently explained why he ‘hates’ multi-streaming.

‘Feels like every YouTube livestreamer instantly swaps back over to Twitch, or starts multi-streaming, the moment their contract ends,’ he wrote on Twitter.

He added: ‘I’m personally a multi-streaming hater based off my goals. I find the benefit of added overall viewership isn’t worth fracturing the audience. I also find streamers have a bias towards their preferred platform leaving one of the chats as the ‘step-child’.

‘The next Kai Cenat won’t be a multi-streamer who has 50K average viewers on two platforms it’ll be a streamer who dominates with 80L viewers on one IMO [in my opinion].’

Ludwig, however, does clarify that ‘you shouldn’t marry yourself to one platform’ if you’re a smaller streamer, and if you want to ‘make more money’ through increased viewership.

While it isn’t surprising to hear this, considering these streamers built their audiences on Twitch, it’s clear the majority of the audience still prefer the platform when it comes to the viewing experience today.

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